Hyderabad, Mar 6: Appealing the Prime Minister to roll back the proposed amendments to Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTPA) 2003, thousands of Beedi workers across Telangana state under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee (JAC)  have observed rallies and meetings  and said that any changes in the ACT would wreck on over seven lakh beedi workers in the state, mostly women beedi rollers working from home.

The Joint Action Committee of  (JAC) Trade Unions comprising of ‘Telangana Pragateesheela Beedi Workers Union’, the ‘Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh’, ‘Telangana Rastra Samithi’ and  ‘Indian Federation of Trade Unions’ conducted rallies and meetings with 21000 Beedi workers across Telangana at Nizamabad, Siddipet, Medak, Jagithyal, Karimnagar, Sircilla, Kamareddy, Nirmal, Metpally, Jharmoor amongst others.

The Ministry of Health, in January this year has proposed to add several stringent amendments to the already harsh rules of the ‘Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, production, Supply and Distribution) Act’, 2003, popularly known as COTPA.

If these proposed amendments become  laws within this act, the 200-year old, ‘Hand-Made in India’ Beedi industry, an indigenous cottage industry, is at risk of overnight closure, and the livelihood of over thirty million workers associated with this industry is in grave peril, the JAC said in a statement here on Friday.

 Some of the key issues of these rigorous amendments are —  Prohibition of printing the Brand name on the Beedi bundle, pack or carton, thus stripping a legal product of its unique and recognisable identity; The number of Beedis hand-packed in a bundle to be mandated by the government ; Mandatory purchase of a government issued special Trade Licensebythe smallest ofvillage shopkeepers, street vendors and hawkers for selling Beedis and  Mandatory printing of the Date of manufacture and Maximum Retail Price even on a tiny, hand wrapped, conical pack, 85 per cent of which is already covered by a previously mandated,dire, pictorial warning.

In case of a failure to follow these rigorous rules, willfully or erroneously, the amendments seek to impose severe punishments and penalties, under both the civil and the criminal codes, and range from seven year jail terms to  the highest level of monetary fines.

While the Beedi industry is already fully compliant with the existing, stipulated regulations of COTPA,  to be compliant with the new, harsher amendments proposed to COTPA 2003, is extremely challenging  for a small scale , hand-made, cottage industry, the JAC said.

The imposition of these proposed amendments and restrictions on this totally natural, indigenous, ‘Hand-Made in India’ product will have a severe and immediate effect on the livelihoods it sustains across the remotest parts of India, where there is no viable alternative employment currently.

These new provisions of COTPA may well cause the closure of the Beedi industry and drive over 30 million workers into unemployment, forced migrations, and extreme poverty, it said.

There are eight and a half million home based Beedi rollers across India, of whom six and a half million are women. Mostly housewives, mothers and grandmothers, these multi-generational women earn their livelihood rolling beedi’s from home.

Seven million women and tribal people are employed in Tendu leaf plucking in remote forested areas across several states. The cultivation and harvesting of native tobacco used in Beedis employs more than four million farmers and farm workers.

Seven and a half million small shopkeepers earn their livelihood by selling Beedis in semi urban and rural areas.

If the  proposed amendments to COTPA were to become law, Beedi sales are certain to nose dive and fall to a much greater degree as compared to the fall in sales of machine-made Cigarettes and Chewing Tobacco, which do not provide the huge employment that the Beedi industry does, the JAC said.

 The resultant fall in Beedi production and its deeply negative impact on Beedi employment, threatens to push 30 million workers down into penury instead of helping their next generation rise up to a better life.

With this in mind, Beedi Workers across India have been appealing to the Prime Minister to save their livelihoods by keeping Beedis out of the ambit of these new amendments to COTPA, or to have a separate legislation for them within COTPA which is sensitive to their product and situation, and distinct from the laws governing machine-made Cigarettes and Chewing Tobacco, the JAC added.(UNI)